DOSE:	150 mg	oral	Pharms - Venlafaxine	(daily)
	repeated		Various

BODY WEIGHT:

120 lb

I began taking Effexor 8 months ago for major depression and generalized anxiety. From the beginning, I noticed that it gave me a compulsive feeling that I hadn't had before. I began smoking a lot of cigarettes (not just with a drink anymore) and wanting to consume caffeine to increase the rush and hyperness that the Effexor gave me.

Before beginning the drug, I consumed alcohol a few times a week and cocaine maybe once a month, cannabis also once a month. I had not been having too many negative effects from those drugs except for an occasional bad hangover. The first time I partied after I had been on the medicine for a couple of weeks, I got so hyper when I drank and did cocaine that my boyfriend and friends were all worried about me. After that, every time I had anything to drink I would be wasted after one beer and very hyper for the rest of the night. I was never ready for the party to end. My boyfriend always worried because he said it was like I became a different person all of a sudden.

This all culminated one night when after drinking and doing coke, I went home with my boyfriend and our roommate and they went to bed. I wasn't ready for bed. I found someone with coke and left the house at 3am, drove very drunk and continued to drink and do coke all night. The next day I returned home, threatened to commit suicide while hanging my legs off our apartment roof, and was subsequently hospitalized. Granted, this could have happened without the Effexor, but in years of occasional drug consumption, I've never behaved in a manner even close to this.

I've successfully quit the coke for about 5 months now. I am trying to quit drinking again now because of how I feel like I can't control myself when I drink with this medication. When I stop drinking now, I crave alcohol and I smoke a lot of weed (used to make me paranoid) in the same compulsive way. I feel like I just can't get intoxicated enough once I start drinking or smoking or doing coke.

I enjoyed some recreational drug and alcohol use before Effexor, but my behavior was in no way like it has been since I started taking the Effexor. Another note: Since beginning the Effexor, the 'rushy' feeling that it gives me causes me to feel like I don't need to eat. I've lost about 15 lbs. since I began it.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 61077
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 12, 2010	Views: 9,146
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Pharms - Venlafaxine (191), Various (136) : Retrospective / Summary (11), Depression (15), Combinations (3), Not Applicable (38)